Relief

Us and every mammal on earth takes
twenty seconds to piss. Imagine that,
the great equalizer is between our legs
(of course). It doesn’t matter
how many warm beers we forced down
during bumbling pauses at house parties
we never wanted to attend. If we just
got the trots training for a pointless race,
or held our bladders tight as a newborn
because the bathroom was too many
steps away (and we so lazy). We’re the same
as baboons, house cats and cattle
being pointed to the slaughter house.
And that toilet paper? Those Turkish toilets?
The bidets, baby wipes and hoses
we swear never touched our asses? Those
don’t make us better than the wild things
hunkered down, embarrassed,
eyes averted in the fields.

Jessica (Tyner) Mehta is a Cherokee poet and novelist. She’s the author of four collections of poetry including Secret-Telling Bones, Orygun, What Makes an Always, and The Last Exotic Petting Zoo as well as the novel The Wrong Kind of Indian. She’s been awarded numerous poet-in-residencies posts, including positions at Hosking Houses Trust and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England, Paris Lit Up in France, and the Acequia Madre House in Santa Fe, NM. Jessica is the recipient of a Barbara Deming Memorial Fund in Poetry. She is the owner of a multi-award winning writing services business, MehtaFor, and is the founder of the Get it Ohm! karma yoga movement. Visit Jessica’s author site at www.jessicatynermehta.com.